Understanding labor dynamics is crucial for understanding economic behavior during crises, like the financial crisis of 2008 or the COVID-19 pandemics. However, data availability usually poses a challenge, as most of the studies on labor markets rely on surveys that follow the same individual at most for a year and half, usually just two consecutive trimesters. Longer studies exist, but they are uncommon as they take very long times and are very costly. The most basic element of analysis, the transition matrix across jobs, can still provide an averaged description of longer paths by considering sequences of transitions. This sort of walk over the occupations can be addressed from a network science perspective. Network analysis can help identify critical occupations in the job network, calculate distances across activities, and characterize groups or communities of occupations [Mealy].

In this work we study job transitions between the formal and informal sector in four countries from Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and México. First, we use the O*NET skills database [Peterson] in combination with the country-specific household surveys to study what characterizes the transitions between different occupations in the formal and informal markets. Taking into account the skills required to work at each job allows inferring with higher accuracy which transitions are plausible to occur. Next, we construct a labor network, where each node represents a combination of occupation and formality level. By analyzing this network, we observe which occupations serve as bridges between the formal and informal sectors. We find that the formal and informal occupations are mostly tied to themselves, with relatively few occupations connecting the formal and informal sectors. Lastly, we separate the networks in three periods taking into account pre, post and during the COVID-19 quarantine periods. By comparing the network structure at each period, we characterize the changes occurred to the labor market during the pandemic.

[Mealy] Mealy, P., del Rio-Chanona, R.M. and Farmer, J.D., 2018. What you do at work matters: new lenses on labour. What You Do at Work Matters: New Lenses on Labour (March 18, 2018).

[Peterson] Peterson, N.G., Mumford, M.D., Borman, W.C., Jeanneret, P.R., Fleishman, E.A., Levin, K.Y., Campion, M.A., Mayfield, M.S., Morgeson, F.P., Pearlman, K. and Gowing, M.K., 2001. Understanding work using the Occupational Information Network (O* NET): Implications for practice and research. Personnel psychology, 54(2), pp.451-492.